Today a further delegation from CLEAR met with Lynne Featherstone, the new Home Office minister with responsibility for drugs policy. She is the Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and was appointed to replace Norman Baker after he resigned in November 2014.

We invited Jonathan Liebling, Political Director of the United Patients Alliance (UPA) to accompany us and he gave eloquent testimony about his own use of medicinal cannabis. UPA has been doing excellent work in running a series of meetings up and down the country bringing medicinal users together. We hope there will be further co-operation between UPA and CLEAR.

Jonathan spoke about using cannabis to help with anxiety and depression, as did Kate Stenberg who has also used cannabis to deal with a chronic pain condition. Vicky Hodgson spoke about treating her scoliosis, COPD and cluster headaches. Richard Tong explained how using a small amount of cannabis each day helps him cope with Crohn’s disease. Roland Gyallay-Pap, related how he produced cannabis oil when his mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the great help it gave her with sleeping and eating in the final months of her life. Penny Fitzlyon talked about treating her MS with cannabis and how she has now been refused Sativex. It was obvious this had a big impact on the minister.

She listened to each of us very attentively and we all felt that she had taken genuine interest and understood our arguments, particularly about enabling UK patients to import Bedrocan medicinal cannabis.

We also presented Ms Featherstone with a pre-publication copy of the paper ‘Medicinal Cannabis: The Evidence’, which we have produced at the request of George Freeman MP, the Life Sciences minister. This is a literature review of the existing evidence on medicinal cannabis. It makes a powerful argument for the transfer of cannabis from schedule I to schedule II so that it may be prescribed by a doctor. Currently the paper is being peer-reviewed and we hope that it may itself be published in a scientific/medical journal shortly.

CLEAR has also recently delivered a briefing on medicinal cannabis to Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats. We shared this with Ms Featherstone as well.

With the General Election fast approaching, all MPs, including minsters, are about to go into campaign mode. Nick Clegg is to cover drugs policy in a speech a Chatham House later this week. There may yet be further developments, specifically on medicinal cannabis as the election campaign unfolds. What is certain is that the new Parliament will represent a real opportunity for change and we have high hopes of real progress.

“The Lib Dem leader risks provoking outrage this week when he joins Sir Richard Branson to put the case for removing all criminal sanctions for possessing cannabis – including skunk, its most potent form.”

Mail on Sunday, 1st March 2015

The only thing that keeps this terrorising message about cannabis off its front page is Jihadi John. The Daily Mail and Jihadi John share the same ideas in how to persuade people to their bizarre and distorted world view.

In fact, elsewhere in the Mail, as well as in its terrorist allies in Fleet Street, cannabis and Jihadi John are conflated. Apparently, he used to smoke ‘high strength ‘skunk‘ cannabis’. Of course! That explains it all then. The Mail wants us to believe that cannabis causes terrorism, as well as psychosis, mad axe murderers, destroys the economy and makes normally happy, hard working people turn instantly into demented gibbering wrecks.

The Daily Mail is as accurate about cannabis as Jihadi John is on Islam, good and evil.

Charles Walker MP, the habitual deceiver on evidence about cannabis, is at it again – and he’s a terrorist too.

Charles Walker MP. Crazy Claims About Cannabis.

“…the drugs are seven or eight times more powerful now.”

What is this lie designed to achieve? It’s intended to terrorise people, parents in particular, with ridiculous exaggeration that has no evidence to back it up at all.

Maybe if we had more honesty from politicians and newspapers we’d have less terrorism all round? We’d certainly be better able to protect people from the dangers caused by the ‘war on drugs’. Also, young people might start to believe what we say about extremist ideologies rather than concluding that they can’t believe anything said by numbskull liars like Charles Walker or publisher liars like the Daily Mail.

]]>https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-daily-mail-uses-terrorism-to-promote-its-bizarre-ideology/feed/0Peter ReynoldsNick Clegg. The UK's Most Progressive Politician on Drugs Policy.Mail on Sunday, 1st March 2015Charles Walker MP. Crazy Claims About Cannabis.Channel 4 Cannabis Programme. Irresponsible, Unethical, Misleading.https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/channel-4-cannabis-programme-irresponsible-unethical-misleading/
https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/channel-4-cannabis-programme-irresponsible-unethical-misleading/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 13:11:21 +0000http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/?p=5938]]>The pre-publicity for next week’s programme ‘Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial’ has been nothing but a repeat of 1930s ‘Reefer Madness’. See ‘Jon Snow gets the inside dope on skunk’ for his commentary and a video.

It is tragic that respected journalists, Jon Snow and Matthew Paris, both of whom have been intelligent opponents of the disastrous drugs war, have been duped and manipulated into being used as sensationalist propaganda by an unscrupulous production company, Renegade Pictures. After Channel 4’s prejudicial and hate-mongering programme, Benefits Street, one would have hoped that its editors would have learned lessons and resolved to take a more responsible approach.

David Abraham, CEO, Channel 4

I have been in correspondence with Renegade Pictures, with UCL, which is responsible for ethical approval of the study and with Jon Snow. Today I have written to the Chief Executive of Channel 4.

There are compelling reasons why you should halt the broadcast of this programme in its present form. It is grossly irresponsible, deeply unethical and highly misleading.

I write as the elected leader of more than 320,000 supporters of cannabis law reform. CLEAR represents more people than all other UK drugs policy groups combined. I have made repeated attempts to engage with the producers of this programme, Renegade Pictures, but apart from one acknowledgement my correspondence has been ignored. This is an open letter which will be published on the CLEAR website.

A comprehensive complaint will be made to OFCOM if the programme is broadcast in its present form and I am already in touch with UCL on the question of ethics. At this stage I want to draw to your attention to conclusive evidence of the unethical basis of this programme.

The study being conducted by Professors Curran and Nutt is important science. However, it is not original and the outcome is a foregone conclusion. It is well established in other research and widely understood that CBD moderates the psychoactive effects of THC.

The cannabis used in the programme is not ‘skunk’ as claimed, it is a ‘haze’ variety produced by Bedrocan BV, the Netherlands government official producer of medicinal cannabis. It is prescribed as medicine by doctors in Holland, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Canada.

I would refer you to the Netherlands Office for Medicinal Cannabis, which regulates Bedrocan products. It publishes guidelines for medical professionals which can be seen here: BEDROCAN GUIDELINES

On using a vapouriser these state:

“Inhale a few times until the desired effect is reached or until psychological side-effects occur. Wait 5-15 minutes after the first inhalation and wait between inhalations.”

If you now observe the ludicrous overdose that Jon Snow and Matthew Paris were subjected to, you will understand how gravely irresponsible is the conduct of the programme’s producers.

Aside from the impact on the individuals concerned, this programme will present a highly misleading and false impression of the use of cannabis which millions of British people participate in every day.

I urge you to take prompt action and stop the broadcast of this programme in its present form.

Resign immediately Jack Straw. Go away, in shame. Remove yourself from public life. Wait until the Chilcot report comes out when, perhaps, if there is any justice, you will be put in front of a court.

This is the sham, the deceit that was New Labour. Straw and his chum Blair are the personification of corrupt, privileged Britain. They are also charged as fraudsters and war criminals.

And take the disgraced knight Rifkind with you. He of the arrogance that breeds a Cameron to sit atop the Westminster elite. Nothing to offer except their sense of superiority and a life dedicated to self-service.

Rifkind

Revolution is brewing in the United Kingdom. Government’s contempt for Parliament. The subversion of Magna Carta by a Lord Chancellor who disgraces the title. The ever-widening gap between rich and just-managing. The contempt for the electorate by the Westminster elite is returned with interest.

I fervently hope that in the General Election of 2015, the British people seize control and change our nation for the better with a dramatic verdict. We need another Conservative Liberal coalition but with the Tories severely hobbled and a strong showing from the minor parties. We need some healthy debate, dissent and disrespect for the old ways. We need some UKIP MPs, some Greenies and some Welsh and Scottish nationalists.

Let’s make it a gentle revolution but we need riddance of the old guard. We need new hope and a new standard of integrity from our politicians.

The British tabloid press has long been engaged in the corruption of our society and successive governments’ ability to deal with drugs policy by its sensationalism, distortion and dishonesty.

In fact the worst offender now is the Daily Telegraph, a tabloid in everything except format. It now eclipses the Mail newspapers for inaccurate, misleading and distorted reporting on all aspects of drugs policy. Its science and medicine writers are either deliberately engaged in deception or utterly incompetent. Virtually every story it publishes on drugs these days has to be retracted but you never hear about it because it’s buried in a tiny, tiny correction.

The Mail newspapers can’t resist the stories about the miraculous medicinal benefits of cannabis because they make such good sensationalism. So although they still publish hogwash, like this latest distortion, they’ve actually become more balanced almost by mistake.

Why is the British press so incompetent and/or malevolent on drugs? Is it anything to do with the £800 million pa that the alcohol industry spends on press advertising? I don’t know. Maybe it just likes to appeal to the fast dwindling band of bigots that actually buy newspapers these days.

We are a laughing stock across the world for the idiocy of our press and government, particularly in respect of cannabis. In Canada and Israel, hospitals provide elderly patients with cannabis vapourisers on trollies, so strong is the evidence for its beneficial effects on aging and dementia. Here of course we prefer to let them lie in their own excreta while feeding them with scaremongering nonsense, distortion and exaggeration of scientific studies.

Capone is only nine, going on 10 but I know that his time is approaching quickly, far too fast for me.

He saved me when I escaped London from a woman and a destructive lifestyle. We used to walk five miles every day – at least. Now he has to be encouraged every step, at best half a mile then I have to take him home and Carla and I go out again for exercise

He has a strong, stable, self-contained personality. He is loving, obedient but independent. He is my guide as much as I am his master.

He has severe arthritis in all four legs, particularly around the elbows but he also has some sort of spinal problem and you can see it clearly from the way he walks. For some months anti-inflammatories seemed to help but no longer. Now he is on 300mg gabapentin twice a day and there has been an improvement, without evident side effects.

He also developed epilepsy a few years ago and about every six months he has a cluster of about a dozen seizures over 24 – 36 hours.

I shall be by his side until the final moment and that will be a very difficult decision to make. As long as he is happy and enjoying life I will look after him. When he finally goes to that neverending walk in the sky his legs won’t ever hurt again, the sun will always shine and there will be deer and rabbits to chase around every corner.

]]>https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/my-baby-boy-capone-is-dying/feed/1Peter ReynoldsClassic 1CLEAR Medicinal Users Panel. Fourth Delegation To Parliament.https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/clear-medicinal-users-panel-fourth-delegation-to-parliament/
https://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/clear-medicinal-users-panel-fourth-delegation-to-parliament/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 17:33:11 +0000http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/?p=5907]]>There is real momentum building in Parliament on the issue of medicinal cannabis. The first thing George Freeman said this week when he welcomed us to the Department of Health was: “There is a lot of discussion going on in government about this subject”.

This is extraordinary progress, unimaginable as recently as 2012. Undoubtedly, developments in the US have raised cannabis up the political agenda. Through 2014, CLEAR has been well received by the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Home Office, the Department of Health, the Health Select Committee and just before Christmas I met with Baroness Meacher and Lord Howarth in the House of Lords. They are chair and treasurer, respectively, of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform. They are determined to push reform through to make medicinal cannabis available and have briefed one of the UK’s leading psychopharmacologists to prepare a review of existing evidence on the subject. Armed with this they have a plan to meet with key individuals in both Houses of Parliament and I have no doubt that they will succeed in changing minds.

Also this week, I met with advisors to Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, in the very heart of government at the Cabinet Office. The Liberal Democrats are planning towards another coalition after the General Election and determined to see drugs policy form part of a new coalition agreement. Right at the front of their priorities is medicinal cannabis for which there is strong support from existing ministers, Lynne Featherstone at the Home Office and Norman Lamb at the Department of Health. Expect announcements in the run up to the election.

George Freeman is the Life Sciences Minister, responsible for medicines, NHS innovation, research, development, the MHRA and NICE. His role is as important as any other minister in achieving the reform we seek. He is another ally and has asked me to submit a paper setting out our proposals. Of particular importance is how medicinal cannabis could be regulated, either with a full Marketing Authorisation from the MHRA or possibly registration as a Tradional Herbal Medicine. The very fact that we are now discussing such detail is a measure of how far we have come.

So there is great cause for optimism at the start of 2015. We are closer than we have ever been before and this has been achieved by moving away from the old ‘protests’ and outdated campaigning ideas. I am confident that early in the new parliament we will see substantial progress.

A Life Well Lived

Husband. Father. Brother. Grandfather. Uncle. A mentor, benefactor and example to so many.

He has had a wonderful life.

It is a wonderful life, alive in the hearts and memories of all who knew him, especially those of us that love him.

For us it is as a legend, almost a fairy tale of romance, nobility and triumph against all the odds. That is why, though very emotional, I can feel no sadness at my father’s story; only joy, pride, satisfaction at a life so well lived. Would that we could all cross the finish line in first place, for my father has the gold medal around his neck and he is our champion.

Until the build-up to war in 1938, William, my grandfather, could not get regular shifts at the steelworks in Newport. There was no food on the table and my father was severely malnourished. 50 years later after winning a scholarship to Oxford, in union with the woman he adored every minute of his life, he was at the top of his profession: one of the leading commercial lawyers in the UK, an extraordinary achievement, a measure of our time.

Yet nothing mattered to my father except family. That’s not that it was more important than anything else. It was all that mattered.

So we have had our fair share of petty squabbles and division but never, not once, has he, nor my mother, been diverted from a deep and abiding love for each one of us. For his five children, he provided the total security, material and emotional, that enabled us to go out into the world and make our own mistakes, achieve our own successes in which he took so much pride.

My earliest memory is of him hopping down the path of our bungalow in Gorleston to a waiting ambulance having put a garden fork through his foot. Hugh was not yet born, so I was younger than 18 months old but I remember it like yesterday.

We all have special memories. It is impossible to pick between them. I recall him taking me on my first visit to the cinema, the Acocks Green Odeon, to see Zulu – and the great Welsh pride in that. Later, I recall seeing James Bond films with him and he introduced me to the books, including the naughty bits, so risqué and daring at the time.

In 1970, I accompanied Dad as a VIP guest to the Alcan Open, a golf tournament in County Dublin. We were both mischievously plied with drink, me having just passed 13, and we nearly missed our plane home.

In the past year of his life he endured the tragedy of Jonathan’s untimely death. With great dignity he has led this family to where we are today. Nothing has ever given me more pride than to take him to his last formal occasion in October when he saw my son, Richard, called to the bar. I know he was equally overjoyed a few weeks later to visit Jacob at his college in Oxford.

What characterises my father’s life throughout is enormous generosity, both of spirit and in material terms. Even to those who had wronged him or against whom he had just cause for complaint, he has always been there, always a ready hand to those in times of need.

Indivisible from my father’s life is his union with my mother which transcends death as much as any relationship ever can. I believe his love and legacy will sustain her forever. They deserve each other as much as the night deserves the sunrise. Nothing will ever extinguish what is between them.

Dad often used to speak in French. I’m not sure why but I fondly remember being called John-Pierre or John-P. So I will never say goodbye to him. Instead, the French express it so much better: au revoir mon pere.